Third's Chance
by Alaria MacNab
Summary: Speed was born Illegally to british parents, she has never been to school and her hearing was damaged when she was refused proper medical help, now she's been given a second chance from the last place she expected.
1. Visitor

Chapter One: Visitor  
  
It was late in the morning and her mother and brothers were out, when there came a knock on the door. Six-year-old Speed sat at the old kitchen table reading a hard copy of the newspaper. Glancing up, she set down her glass of milk and jumped out of the too-tall chair. Her small feet made no noise as she made her way down the hall to the barely-standing door of the ancient apartment. Speed boosted herself up to the peephole and looked out.  
Though Speed didn't recognize the man on the other side of the door, the pale blue uniform he was wearing under a black trench coat caught her eye and she quickly unlocked the dead bolt on the door, opening the door a crack.  
"Hello Speed." The man said. "My name is Dimak, can I come in?"  
All Speed could do was nod and open the door fully so the man in the International Fleet uniform could enter. This he did, removing his coat as he stepped over the threshold. Speed took the coat, leaving it draped over the bench in the entryway. She lead Dimak to the overstuffed couch in the living room and sat down across from him, her feet hanging over the end of the couch, coming no where near to the floor.  
"What can I do for you Dimak?" Speed asked, meeting the visitor's gaze.  
"As you've probably guessed, I'm from the IF." Dimak said, "Battle school more specifically."  
"Derek's at school you know." Speed started to slide off the couch thinking he must be here for her twin brother who had been tested for the Battle School Program.  
"Yes, I know." Dimak replied, stopping Speed in her tracks. "Its you I came to see."  
"Okay." Speed slowly slid back onto the couch.  
"You're the youngest right Speed?" Dimak asked "A Third more correctly?"  
"Yes." Speed didn't like where this conversation was going. It wasn't her fault her parents had three children, against International Law.  
"So, according to law, you have never attended school, correct?"  
"Yes." Speed said again, she wasn't proud of that either.  
"You can read, can you not?" Dimak probed.  
This time, Speed didn't answer. She didn't know if she'd be in trouble if they knew she had taught herself to read and could do Benjamin's homework effortlessly.  
"You're in no trouble." Dimak said, and for some reason, Speed didn't believe him. She kept her silence.  
"Okay Speed the silence thing doesn't go over well with me." Dimak's calm face turned hard. "Derek's monitor has shown that you can read, you can write and you can do math pretty damn well. Derek's monitor was removed a few hours ago. He's out of the program."  
Speed was crushed. Her family's golden child had failed. Benjamin had bragged about how his brother was going to go into space. How he was the only boy in the inner city school to be even considered. Everyone was so sure he was going to make it, and now, he was just like everyone else.  
Her disappointment must have shown on her face for Dimak leaned in "He was too confident, too arrogant. Arrogance is not a quality of battle. But on the other hand, your brother was quick. He would have flourished at Battle School, but he is not the only one."  
Speed wanted to understand, but her untreated ADD got the better of her. She climbed over the back of the couch, having lost interest in the conversation for the time being. "Can I get you something to drink Mr. Dimak?" she asked.  
Dimak followed her to the corner of the apartment where she opened the fridge.  
"Alyssa.." He said, catching her off guard. She slammed the fridge door shut.  
"Do not call me that name." She glared at Dimak. "I hate that name."  
"I know." Dimak said, "So we'll make sure that the Battle School flight records list you as Speed shall we?"  
"What are you talking about?" Speed stared at the tall man, "I'm not going anywhere. I can't go anywhere. It's against the law."  
Dimak reached into the pocket of his uniform and removed a large folded piece of paper. He held it out to Speed, who took it, unfolded it and looked it over.  
"This is a permit, signed by the Strategos, stating that the child known as Speed, being a Third and therefore being unable to receive education or health care is hereby eligible for admission to Battle School and for all medication necessary to correct her hearing impairment and her Attention Deficient Disorder." Dimak smiled as Speed looked up in disbelief.  
"That means." She hesitated, not wanted to say it, in case it was untrue.  
"That's right." Dimak took the paper back. "If you so choose, you can leave on the next shuttle flight to Battle School."  
Speed sat down hard on the tiled floor. No longer would she be her family's outcast. At Battle School, no one needed to know what she was. She could hear again, she could amount to someone, to something.  
"When can we go?" She asked.  
"Well we will need to tell your mother." Dimak responded, his smile fading again.  
"No, no you don't." Speed stood up, "I'm not her daughter, I'm her embarrassment. I won't be missed and I don't want to be here when they find out."  
Dimak nodded, "You're choice." He began walking towards the front of the apartment. "Come on, you don't need to pack."  
Speed, who didn't own anything but the clothes she had on, smiled and followed Dimak to the door. She was getting out, she was going to school. The IF wanted her, no one else ever had. How could she say no to that?  
Dimak led Speed down the hall of the old apartment building to the elevator. She felt very small and plain to be standing in her street clothes next to the tall uniformed man. Dimak punched the "down" button on the elevator and stood waiting for the carriage to rise to the floor.  
"You're going to fix my ears soon, right Dimak?" She asked, looking up at him. She had partially lost her hearing in her left ear after she and Derek had been stricken by chicken pox shortly after birth. Derek had been given the treatment necessary to avoid all serious side effects but Speed had been left to fend for herself.  
"Well I'm not personally going to fix them." He replied, "But you will receive proper medical care in a hospital before launch."  
A bell sounded from the elevator shaft and the doors slid open. Speed followed Dimak into the elevator, he pressed the button for ground floor and leaned casually up against the back wall as the doors slipped shut.  
Speed emerged into the blazing sunlight of the run down slums of London England. Dimak led her across the cracked sidewalks to the waiting car. She climbed into the back seat, while Dimak got into the front beside another man in International Fleet Uniform.  
"Where to, Captain?" the other man asked.  
"London Grace." Dimak replied, fastening his seatbelt.  
The second man nodded and with that the car skimmed along the magna- belt inbedded in the road, away from the rundown apartment building, and Speed's old life as a third. 


	2. Accident

Chapter Two: Admitting Room  
  
The car pulled up in front of the tall, clean complex that formed the London Grace Children's Hospital. Speed climbed out of the car, gazing up in awe at the massive main building. She had never even been in this part of town before. She followed Dimak up the path to the closest building. Large blue letters above the door read, "ADMITTING." The doors slid open of their own accord, granting Speed and the International Fleet Captain entrance to the white tiled floors and light blue walls of the waiting room.   
Dimak flashed a security badge at the front desk and a wrinkled old woman pointed them down a hall to their left.   
"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Speed asked as they walked down yet another long hallway several minutes later.  
"Not a clue." Dimak responded smiling mysteriously, ignoring Speed's razed eyebrow. Dimak stopped in front of an ordinary door, looking first down the hall to his right, and then down the hall to left before he pushed the door open, and Speed stepped inside.   
The room was bright, but it was not the typical hospital room that Speed had seen in her brother's history books. She guessed this must be a consultation room. A desk and three chairs sat to one side of the small room, and the on the other were a scale and an examination table. A young woman in a lab coat stood at the far corner of the room admiring the wall of diplomas on the wall. She turned around when Speed entered revealing the insignia on the front of her coat marked her as a Lieutenant in the International Fleet.   
Dimak excused himself and left the doctor and Speed alone.   
"Good afternoon Speed." The doctor said pulling her chair out and sinking into it, "Please, sit down." Speed eyed the doctor carefully but took a seat across from the doctor. "My name is Doctor Freedman. I am a surgeon here at the London Grace."   
"And a lieutenant in the Fleet." Speed finished.   
"Yes, I am a lieutenant." Freedman said, "I will be performing the surgery on your ears in three days time."   
"Three days?" Speed interjected, "I'm not having my surgery for three more days?"   
"There are some tests to run between now and then." Freedman continued, completely ignoring Speed's comment, "Any more then that I cannot say."   
"Why not?"   
"It's classified." Freedman opened a one of her desk drawers and began riffling through it.   
"Since when are my medical matters classified?" Speed prodded   
"Since they had to do with the International Fleet." The doctor slammed the drawer shut, "You should learn that now, and stop asking silly questions. They won't get you very far in Battle School."   
Speed silently disagreed, after all she had gotten under the doctor's skin without so much as trying. This told her two things, one that the doctor was not good with working with children who were awake and two she had not reached the rank of Lieutenant through Battle School or any of the other of the children training programs. It was amazing what one could grasp from a handful of simple questions. While this was running through her mind Speed kept her face placid and nodded her understanding of what the doctor had told her.   
"That's a good girl." The doctor stood up, "now I'm going to have to sedate you to run the first series of tests."   
Speed didn't like the sound of that, she pushed back from her chair and stood up. "I'll stay awake."   
"Speed you do not want to be difficult for this." Doctor Freedman said, removing a hypodermic needle from her pocket. Before Speed could react she flashed out and inserted the needle into her neck.   
The young girl saw the world go black before collapsing into a heap on the floor.  
  
"What in God's name happened?"  
"She reacted to the drug."  
"How much did you give her?"  
"20 milligrams."  
"Of course she reacted at that rate, she's never had medication before, let alone 20 Millis!"  
"Perhaps I should have been informed of that previously."  
"You're out of order, lieutenant."  
"My apologies, captain."  
  
Speed woke up in a large bed in the recovery room. She could see the heart monitor on the right side of her bed but she could not hear its patterned beeping. She turned to see Dimak standing at the foot of her bed; Doctor Freedman wasn't there.   
Dimak's lips started moving but as far as speed could tell, nothing came out. She looked at him blankly until he grabbed a desk from the table beside her and typed something in, his fingers moving like lightning. When he had finished he passed the desk over to her and she read it quickly. "COMPLICATIONS WITH MEDICATION. POSSIBLE LONG TERM DAMAGE."   
Speed read it twice over before she passed it back to Dimak, shaking her head in disbelief. She looked at him and watched him mouth the words "I'm Sorry" Speed couldn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it, she spoke, and when she did she couldn't hear her own voice. "You mean.I'm deaf?"


	3. Surgery

Chapter Three: Surgery  
  
Speed lay flat on her back in the hospital bed, counting the dots on the suspended ceiling. Not five feet from her, Dimak and Freedman were deep in conversation, though Speed had no idea of this.  
"Face it doctor, you screwed up." Dimak was saying, "You'll be lucky if you don't face a court martial at the end of this."  
"I'm telling you I can fix it." Freedman responded, looking over her charts.  
"You had your chance." Dimak snapped, "You knew the girl was a Third, hell that's why she's here. You're dismissed."  
"Yes sir." Freedman stood and left the room somewhat sulkily.  
Speed saw her leave and turned to see Dimak on the videophone, she couldn't read what his lips were saying but it sounded like Dimak was trying to arrange for another doctor to repair the damage. He hung up the phone and turned to Speed.  
"What's going on Dimak?" Her mouth said, her ears didn't hear. Dimak scribbled something down on a scrap piece of paper and handed it to her.  
"There were complications with the medication. We've found another doctor to come attempt to repair it but there are no guarantees." It said.  
"Can I still go to Battle School?" Speed asked, passing the paper back to the captain.  
"Only if we can repair your hearing." He wrote, "In the mean time, we'll get you started on medication for your ADD."  
Speed nodded and turned her attention back to the ceiling. Half an hour later, a nurse brought in some books for her to read and handed her some pills. Speed swallowed them and started flipping through the first book. It was a cutesy book about some ponies that get lost, and Speed put it down after a few pages. The second book was slightly more interesting, but still very childish. The young girl put the books away and settled in for a long nap. She watched out the window as doctors and nurses went about their daily lives. She couldn't believe it, she had been so close to getting out of her miserable existence and now she was going back. She wanted to cry, but no tears came. She would never show weakness in front of someone, no matter how much she wanted to. It was another two days before the doctor arrived to perform Speed's surgery. By the time he did, Speed was completely fluent in sign language but was still very estranged from the other patients. The International Fleet kept her deliberately apart and it wasn't that much of a change. She had never had any friends at home. Dimak had told her the next launch was in several months. If she hadn't recovered within a year or two they would have to send her home. That just wasn't acceptable to Speed, as far as she was concerned, they could sign her up for the next launch. On the morning of, Speed was wheeled down the hallway feeling slightly dazed from the ADD medication. They brought her into the operating room and she lay down on the table, her tiny body quivering with anticipation. The mask was slipped over her face and she was unconscious in seconds. Doctor O'Donnell was performing the surgery. The goal was to open up the ear and insert a tiny computer that would transfer the sounds for her failed eardrum. The left ear went smoothly and was completed in three hours. Stitching the incision carefully shut, the Doctor turned to one of the nurses. "We're going to attempt the second ear as well today." He said. "Are you sure Doctor?" The nurse looked skeptical. "Yes I'm sure." The doctor replied. The nurses exchanged glances and slowly rotated Speed so she was lying on her other side. The doctor's scalpel cut just behind the ear and the surgery began. Carefully peeling back pieces of muscle and skull, the doctor placed the computer in the child's earlobe and replaced all he had moved. Stitching the skin flap back over the opening, he rolled the child onto her back and dropped the scalpel in the disinfectant. "Clean her up, get her to recovery." He said, and with that, he left the room.  
  
When Speed woke up from the anesthetic, it was to pain like she had never experianced before. Her head felt like it was going to split. She started screaming, and a nurse came running. "What's wrong?" He signed to Speed. Speeds reply was a careless and hurried "It hurts!" The nurse nodded and moved to the side of the bed, sliding a bag of morphine into the I.V. tray and pressing a button. "It'll get better soon," He signed, "I promise." It hurt too much to nod acknowledgement, She watched as the morphine slid along the tubes toward her arm. She stared at the heart monitor, which was still erratic and slowly drifted into a fitful sleep.  
  
"So, how did it go?"  
"As well as can be expected. She's a strong girl."  
"This isn't news."  
"I know, but I like to state the obvious."  
"What's your assessment?"  
"She's pretty amazing, but I don't think she'll be ready in six months."  
"Never say never doctor." 


	4. Recovery

Chapter Four: Recovery  
  
Several days after the surgery, Speed's world was still silent. One morning, she woke up to find her desk's screen flashing dully at her. After several moments, she realized she had received a mail message, her first ever. Child's fingers tapped the screen as she pulled up the message and read it over.  
"Speed," it read, "Now that you are recovering from your surgery, I must move on and prepare other children for launch. I will return in four months time to see if you are ready to launch."  
The note was signed "Captain Dimak, International Fleet." Speed read it over once more before exiting out of the mail program.  
'Don't worry Dimak' She thought, 'I'll be ready.'  
As the weeks passed, Speed's pain slowly diminished. During this time, she was kept separate from the other patients in the hospital. Not that she really minded, she had never had friends when she was at home and she wasn't surprised that they weren't going to let her have them now.  
Instead, Speed occupied her time by reading. In the past, all that was available to her was the homework her oldest brother struggled with. Now with the help of this marvelous desk Dimak had given to her, she had an entire library at her fingertips, and with nothing else to do, she tore through it like lightning.  
There was a problem though. Speed couldn't read nearly as fast as she once could. Her typing wasn't as fast as I could have been. There was something wrong, and the young girl didn't think it was a result of the surgery. She would have to look closer at her life style before she could figure out what was changing her.  
A month after the surgery, a young doctor wheeled a small cart into Speed's room. Speed was halfway through the Iliad and looked up when she came in.  
"Can I help you?" Speed signed.  
"We've decided that you're ready to have the computers turned on." The doctor replied, "Are you ready to hear again?"  
"Duh." Speed said, hearing nothing.  
The doctor wheeled the cart around to beside Speed's bed. Two magnetic strips were placed behind her ears, which were then connected to the computer on the cart. Speed watched as the doctor pressed several buttons and with a slight zap, a quiet metallic buzzed filled Speed's ears.  
"Can you hear me?" The doctor said, her voice metallic but understandable.  
"Yes." Speed replied, hearing her own voice for the first time in a month.  
"You're a bit of a test case." The doctor bubbled as she removed the strips and wires, "This type of surgery has never been attempted in both ears. We would have done them a few weeks apart but we wanted a fast recovery time."  
"Who's we?" Speed asked, but the doctor didn't answer, instead, she packed up her cart and left Speed to her sounds.  
Speed recovered quickly, she became used to the metallic background noise as well as the way it altered voices. The biggest adjustment, was to Speed's balance.  
The medication had totaled Speed's eardrums. The first time she was allowed out of bed, she nearly fell on her face because of inner ear damage. As the weeks turned to months, she relearned how to walk.  
Two weeks before Dimak's return, the isolated Speed developed an infection from one of the doctors. She was devastated, and spent the next thirteen days in bed. At times it was so serious that she was placed on a ventilator for three days and had a tube placed in her chest to drain fluid.  
The morning of Dimak's visit, Speed called a nurse into her room, she had pulled herself up to rest in a sitting position and was staring determinedly at the nurse as she entered.  
The middle aged nurse was shocked, after all, Speed had only been off the respirator for two days.  
"Remove the chest tube." Speed said, her voice strong and unwaivering.  
"Pardon?" The nurse stuttered.  
"Remove...the...chest...tube..." Speed repeated herself.  
"I must contest." The nurse responded,  
"Contest as you take it out." Speed said, "I'm going up in that shuttle in two months and some little infection is not going to stop me. So either you remove it or I will."  
"Very well." The nurse sighed, "I'll get the doctor."  
Speed winced as they stitched her side up but did not say a word until they were done. As they were leaving, Speed swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Shakily at first, then with more conviction, she began to pace her room.  
  
"The girl's stubborn, that's for sure."  
"We knew that when we selected her. Will she be ready?"  
"Actually, I think she already is." 


	5. Launch

Chapter Five: Launch 

The sound of the door closing woke Speed and she opened her eyes to find a doctor and Captain Dimak standing at the end of her bed. Speed pulled herself into a sitting position and looked from one to the other, waiting patiently for them to speak.

"You've had a rough couple of weeks." Dimak said.

"I'm ready." Speed replied matter-of-factly.

"Not according to Doctor Hammond" Dimak mused, "apparently you were bed ridden until yesterday."

"I'm ready for that launch sir." Speed said, "There's nothing left for me to do on the surface."

"I'd feel much more comfortable if you waited for the next launch." Dimak said, looking from Speed to the doctor.

"No!" Speed exclaimed, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, and stood. She took several steps to Dimak and grabbed at his uniform. The doctor yelled and several aides burst into the room, "I'm not waiting here captain, it was waiting here that I got sick in the first place! Take me up on that shuttle Captain!"

Speed continued to yell as the aides pushed her back into bed. They struggled to hold down her flailing arms and legs. The doctor filled a hypodermic needle with some clear fluid and at a nod from Dimak, injected it into Speeds neck. Speed's erratic motions slowed, then gradually stopped. The aides released her and left the room, the doctor close behind.

Dimak looked at the chart attached to the end of Speed's bed.

"Who knows?" he mused, looking at the now sleeping child in front of him, "But we really do have to stop accepting Thirds."

Speed looked around at the other children walking towards the shuttle. Everyone looked confident on the surface, but their eyes were darting around nervously. Speed was excited, but her face was passive. She was much more interested in observing the other children then the shuttle in front of her.

Particularly of interest was the small boy to her left. Speed had always been undersized because of slight malnourishment but nothing compared to this child. He was practically infantile. He alone was the only one of the boys around her who was watching the others. Their eyes met and he looked up at her without the slightest bit of intimidation in his clear eyes.

Speed climbed into the shuttle and slid into the first available seat, an row seat three rows from the front. The small boy took a seat closest to the window directly across from her. Speed took a few minutes to figure out the five-point harness and then sat back with her eyes closed to enjoy the ride.

The other children were talking and laughing. The boy right beside Speed poked her in the arm. Speed opened her eyes and turned to look at him.

"Hi," He said with a friendly, innocent smile, "I'm Nikolai, what's your name?"

"Speed." She said, returning his smile, "Nice to meet you Nikolai."

Just then Dimak came down from the cockpit. Speed watched in silence as he called upon the small boy across from her. Dimak began to systematically humiliate the boy, who Speed learned was called "Bean." Speed didn't understand, she had thought Dimak to be a nice man, but she was singling Bean out because he was smarter? There would always be someone smarter then her, she didn't much care, and she had already surpassed the world's expectations for her by stepping on the shuttle. All she had to do now was learn.

As Dimak continued to talk about Bean, anger arose right from Speed's heart. 'We're all smarter then you Dimak,' she thought, 'did you realize that? How dare you make us resent him, when we're going to be fighting the buggers, and you're stuck teaching little children?'


End file.
